Constructed at the start of the twentieth century, the Hample and Avenue Buildings occupy a prominent position on Portage Avenue. They once housed shops and offices but had stood empty since the 1990s.

Photograph by James Brittain

The renovation by 5468796 Architecture involved upgrading the ground floor of both buildings for commercial use and adapting the upper floors to accommodate 75 rental apartments. At just three storeys, the Hample Building was half as tall as the Avenue Building, so the architects also added extra storeys to bring the two buildings into line.

Photograph by James Brittain

Steel balconies cantilever through existing window openings for 20 of the apartments. Each one is clad in mirrored aluminium and has a see-through gridded base.

Photograph by James Brittain

“A series of formally simple moves dramatically transform the original facades, shifting public perception of the buildings from eyesores to a unified urban landmark,” say the architects.

Photograph by James Brittain

At ground floor level, a mirrored canopy gives shelter to two different entrances. Stretching across the facade of both buildings, the volume is intended to unite the two structures.

Photograph by James Brittain

The first entrance leads though the glazed shopfront facade into the large ground floor unit, which is currently occupied by a charity organisation.

Photograph by James Brittain

The second entrance is dedicated to residents, who are led through a V-shaped recess into a stairwell at the centre of the building.

The building is located in the market square of small Dutch town Schijndel, where MVRDVpartner Winy Maas grew up. The town suffered damages during World War II, and Maas has been campaigning since the 1980s to replace a destroyed structure in the space between the church and the town hall.

Thirty years and six failed proposals later, the architects and the town council agreed to develop the site within the traditional building envelope specified by the town planners.

MVRDV reinterpreted this volume in glass, then compiled photographs of traditional http://www.zinensis.com farmhouses by artist Frank van der Salm and created a collage of images to apply to each surface of the facade. Using a fritting technique the architects were able to print the images straight onto the glass, creating the illusion of brick walls and a thatched roof.

The building is out of scale with the original farmhouses, so it appears to be two storeys high rather than three, while visible doors measure at a height of around four metres.

“When adults interact with the building, they can experience toddler size again, possibly adding an element of nostalgic remembrance to their reception of the building,” say the architects.

The actual windows and doors don’t line up with the printed images, so entrances look like they pass through brick walls and windows appear as semi-transparent blobs.

Above: photograph is by Jeroen Musch

The architects explain that the building is “more or less translucent” and at night it is illuminated from the inside to appear as a glowing presence in the square.

Named Glass House, the building contains shops, restaurants, offices and a health centre.

London firm Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has completed NEO Bankside, a set of six-sided apartment blocks beside the Tate Modern art gallery on the edge of the River Thames.

Like the Centre Pompidou and many other buildings designed by studio founder Richard Rogers, the four towers feature external bracing systems that form a steel diagrid across the facades.

These supports carry the weight of each structure, preventing the need for load-bearing walls inside the building and in turn allowing flexible layouts on different floors.

“A key feature is the external bracing, which allows a fantastic amount of flexibility inside the apartments,” explained Graham Stirk. “All the walls internally are non-structural, which means we have been able to open up the floor-to-ceiling space much higher than in a conventional apartment. That has enabled us to maximise daylight and the views.”

The towers range from 12 to 24 storeys in height and all four feature balconies on the north and south elevations.

“The four pavilions make up a family of buildings, a series of four towers of different heights bound by a very strong three-dimensional geometry,” said Stirk.

The exposed steel structure is also intended as a nod to the industrial heritage of the area, which was once home to a large oil-fired power station (now Tate Modern).

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